Hello, friends and fans!
Welcome to my 75th monthly newsletter! Pull up a chair, let’s chat! In this month’s newsletter: updates on publishing, reviews and news. Let’s take a look at this months’ “stuff”!
Some General News
This time I have a little news for you – in the form of a little squeak. By that I mean a tiny kitty who adopted me on Monday.
She’s just 5 or 6 weeks old, and her name is Birdie – because the first time we met, she sounded just like a little bird tweeting. I tweeted back, thinking it was a bird in the rafters of my parking garage at work, and Birdie tweeted back. I’m a bit of an absent-minded professor at times, I admit – and ended up staring at the bird’s nests in the rafters trying to work out which one the bird was in, when a movement caught my eyes below – and there she was, circling my feet!
Birdie came to live with me after that! Via a stop at the Newton Park Animal Hospital for a checkup – and a stop at the shops for kitty-litter and kitten munch! That’s right, we now have 4 kitties – and if this keeps up, we’ll be two real old cat ladies! For the time being we’re doing pajama-drill in the nursery (also known as the Library, Art Studio, Gym, Sewing Room and Guest Room, and other uses we might not have thought of yet).
Moving on to other matters.
News About Writing & Publishing:
This is the current state of things:
- New Audiobooks: As I told you last time, “We All Fall Down“, narrated by Darla Middlebrook, the third book in the Panic! Horror In Space series, was released on ACX on 17 February! This is my 19th audiobook, and while there are still a few more of my books that haven’t been turned into audiobooks yet, it will probably be a little while before they find their way onto Audible.
- Writing:
- Over the past few weeks since I returned to work, I was unable to do much writing. Last week, I continued work on my new academic paper entitled “By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them: A Proposed Framework By Which To Understand & Categorize Self-proclaimed ‘Occult Experts’“. This paper will draw heavily on several of the other papers I wrote in the same field of New Religious Movements, namely:
- “Satanism: The Acid Test“,
- “Satanism vs Pseudo-satanism: Disambiguation And Argument Against Conflation From Within Religious Satanism“,
- “A Date With The Devil – Occult & Satanic Calendars Debunked” and
- “Devil’s Advocate: The 666 Gangs – Why They Aren’t Satanists, How They Distorted South African Law Enforcement’s Perception Of Occult Religions, & The Consequences“.
Thereafter, I’ll most likely continue working on another paper tentatively titled “Breaking With Tradition: An Exploration Of The Future Of Submarines As Weapons Of War“. Yes, as writers, we get to research a lot of diverse fields, and even occasionally, to become fairly well-versed in some of them! This paper will be my first foray into “divining the future”, in this case of the submarine, which does tend to fall within the ambit of the sci-fi writer, doesn’t it? After all, the modern submarine was envisioned by Jules Verne in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea back in 1869.
After that, I’ll see where to from there. Perhaps I’ll continue with “Harm’s Way“, the new novel I started working on during my December holiday!
- Over the past few weeks since I returned to work, I was unable to do much writing. Last week, I continued work on my new academic paper entitled “By Their Fruits You Shall Know Them: A Proposed Framework By Which To Understand & Categorize Self-proclaimed ‘Occult Experts’“. This paper will draw heavily on several of the other papers I wrote in the same field of New Religious Movements, namely:
I will, as always, keep you updated.
Publishing
Currently Available Titles:
My books are available as eBooks, Paperbacks, and Audiobooks, and you can find them everywhere. Click the links in the slideshow below to view titles available in these formats.
If you’re still wondering where to find them in the format of your choice, you should read “Where To Get My Books – Specially For My South African Readers!” (recently updated).
New Releases!
My most recent new releases in 2022 were “Sentinel” (May 07, 2022), “We All Fall Down” (July 27, 2022), “Christina Engela’s Strangely Compelling Scifi” (September 5, 2022), followed by “Space Really Sucks!” (December 19, 2022).
Audiobooks:
I have 18 audiobooks available on Audible and Amazon! Click the links in the slideshow below to view titles available as audiobooks.
New Audiobooks:
You can view all 19 of my audiobooks here.
New releases for now include the audiobooks of “Static“, “Life Signs” and “We All Fall Down“.
I’m extremely grateful to Darla Middlebrook the narrator for the Quantum Series and Panic! Horror In Space, and Nigel Peever of Peever Publishing for making this possible! I look forward to many happy years of us working together in future!
Feedback & Communication
Reviews:
You can see all my previous reviews here.
Interviews:
I have no new interviews to show you this time, but all my interviews are linked to from this page.
What The Readers Say:
All my reader comments are linked to from this page.
This past month, I found the following awesome reader’s reviews on Audible!
- Excellent
“This was an emotional and impactful story. The biases and prejudices reflected much of what we see today in some hate groups. I liked how everyone that could rallied to help those in peril. The fight is not over, but I like the unity and fighting for the underdog. The narrator did an exceptional job bringing the characters and story to life. The voice were original and added depth to the story.” – B. McGrath, about High Steaks on Audible, February 11, 2023.
- Another great story spoiled
“Christina Engela has a huge talent when it comes to writing mystery thrillers. She can weave wonderful stories and great characters. However by book 5 the lgbtq agenda does start to pall a little, especially in this book. There is an awful lot of agonising over gender issues which rather undermines the main story. That said, the main reason for my title to this review is once again the awful narration by Darla Middlebrook. Why Ms Engela keeps using her is beyond me. The only way I can listen to her terrible drawl is by listening at 1.5x speed which makes it almost normal. It’s a great pity, as I won’t be listening to any more of Engela’s books narrated by her.” – Boojum, review of Prodigal Sun on Audible, January 20, 2023.
Looks like I really can’t please everyone after all! Oh well, at least I won’t stop trying.
Videos:
You’re welcome to browse through the videos on my YouTube video channel! I’m not really the performing seal type, but I do my best! There’s also a 13 minute animated movie on there, called “Bang, Splat!“, based on characters and settings from “The Time Saving Agency“.
Latest Articles:
Below are links to a few of my most recent posts or articles since my previous newsletter:
- A Peek At My Week! #90
- New Release: We All Fall Down – Audiobook!
- A Peek At My Week! #89
- A Peek At My Week! #88
- Christina Engela’s Monthly Newsletter: #74 February 2023
In Closing
In spite of some of my books having been on Amazon since 2005, not one of them has yet reached 10 reviews, let alone 50! I would really appreciate your help on this! Come on, leave a review – it’s free!
Thanks again for all your support, sharing, friendship and interaction!
As always, feel free to email or message me via Facebook if you have any comments or questions!
Cheers!